Cerebral palsy is a movement disorder that causes a range of debilitating symptoms. A child with cerebral palsy may suffer from difficulty controlling his or her muscles, vision and hearing problems, difficulty eating and speaking, seizures, and more. About a third of cerebral palsy sufferers also experience intellectual and learning impairments. The causes of cerebral palsy are not fully understood, however, there are cases in which a child’s cerebral palsy is caused by a doctor’s failure to provide competent medical care during pregnancy, labor, or delivery.  

Causes of Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is most commonly caused by atypical brain development before, during, or shortly after a child’s birth. Many different types of factors can cause a child to develop cerebral palsy, including:

• Maternal infections
• Reduced blood to the infant’s brain or fetal stroke
• Brain bleeds
• Infant infections
• Traumatic head injury
• Lack of oxygen to the brain

Medical Negligence Can Lead to Cerebral Palsy

Medical professionals have a legal obligation to provide medical care that meets the accepted medical standard. If an obstetrician or other medical professional makes a mistake or uses poor judgment and this leads to a patient’s injury or death, the medical professional may be liable for damages.

Parents' most important job is to protect their children and this responsibility begins at the conception of their child. For pregnant mothers, this can include taking prenatal vitamins, attending required doctor appointments, and following the dietary guidelines given to them by their health provider to keep their baby healthy and safe, even before birth. As is true throughout the child’s life, there are some matters that are out of the parents’ hands—and this battle begins before the child is born. According to the Birth Injury Justice Center, seven out of every 1,000 children will suffer from a birth injury. Some of these injuries may be minor, while others can bring on a lifetime of medical bills, doctor visits, and various other struggles that the child must endure. Depending on the circumstances, medical malpractice may have caused your child’s birth injury. 

Getting to the Root of the Problem

There are a number of reasons why a child may suffer from a birth injury. There may be natural causes, genetic dispositions, or medical mistakes that contributed to the child’s injuries. Before a parent can take legal action in defense of their child, it is important to pinpoint the possible causes of the injuries. One of the uncontrollable causes of birth injuries is the size of the child. Babies weighing over eight pounds or those born before the 37-week mark who are fragile and underweight have a higher risk of suffering from a birth injury. Prolonged labor can also lead to such injuries. The mother’s health is a key factor in her child’s well-being. If the mom has been exposed to toxins throughout the pregnancy or if she is severely overweight, it is not uncommon for birth injuries to result.

Within recent years, the public has witnessed an array of medical malpractice statistics surface across the nation. In the not-so-distant past, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) cited medical negligence as the third leading cause of death in the United States, and a Johns Hopkins study once claimed that more than 250,000 people die each year in the United States from medical mistakes. From coast to coast, emerging reports such as these leave a trail of concerns among patients and their families, namely the worry that one of these medical errors will one day affect them personally and hit much too close to home.

What Is Medical Negligence?

While the thought of a medical mistake in the healthcare community is a scary one, you can combat that fear by educating yourself and your loved ones. You are the best advocate for your own healthcare. Make yourself aware of the various forms of medical negligence so you can work to reduce your risks, and empower yourself by seeking out the resources and help you need in the event that you experience an incident of medical error. Here are examples of some of the most common types of malpractice we see in the medical community today:

Medical malpractice or negligence occurs when a medical professional makes an error that negatively impacts the patient. This can happen in all fields of medicine, and these types of mistakes can be extremely dangerous for the affected patient. According to a report from MDLinx, approximately 50 percent of physicians aged 55 or older have been sued at least once in their careers. This number is fairly staggering and can leave patients wondering, “Is my doctor making a mistake?”

What Are the Top Reasons for Lawsuits?

There are certain areas of medical malpractice that are more common than others. While these mistakes are typically a product of human error, the severity of the results can leave patients with life-altering injuries. Some common types of medical negligence include:

A newlywed couple is suing two Cooley Dickinson Hospital (CDH) doctors over an alleged improperly performed birth that left their newborn daughter permanently injured with cerebral palsy. The couple filed the lawsuit in early 2016 in the Hampshire Superior Court. According to the lawsuit, the doctors, Jay Sprong and Lisa Stephens, neglected to explain the risks of a vaginal birth after a previous Cesarean delivery (c-section).

The newborn's mother was admitted to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in 2013. She alleges that when her water broke, one of the doctors told her she could continue with a vaginal birth without mentioning any risks to her baby. The infant, however, showed signs of cardiac distress with her heart rate dropping as low as 50 beats per minute. The lawsuit points out that the doctors should have called for a c-section delivery.

The court pleadings explain that the mother's uterus ruptured, allowing baby girl to “float in a blood-filled abdominal cavity.” According to the pleading, this is because the doctors neglected the signs that the baby was in distress.